Typical climate-related hazards in mountains
Mountains are generally hazardous places, even under conditions of natural climate variability. They are steep, often tectonically active and prone to earthquakes. With the help of gravity, storms and extreme precipitation events can unleash “fast-onset” hazards such as landslides, floods, and avalanches, the types of hazards that usually receive the most attention. However, mountains are not immune to slow-onset hazards, whose rate of impact is gradual, but which may nevertheless be as destructive as fast-onset events. Slow-onset hazards in mountains include increasing temperatures (the rate of which is increasing faster at higher altitudes), reduced precipitation, desertification, changes in ecosystems and melting glaciers.
Year: 2018
From collection: Mountain Adaptation Outlook Series – Synthesis Report Graphics
Cartographer: Hisham Ashkar